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Real Pirates – The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship
The Field Museum in Chicago is hosting what appears to be a fascinating exhibit – “Real Pirates – The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship“. Whether or not you make to it Chicago to visit the actual exhibit, the exhibit website is full of intriguing information about the ship and her nefarious career. Definitely worth a look.
I might quibble only with the title. The story of the Whydah is not ”untold”. Barry Clifford and Paul Perry told the tale in their book “Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World’s First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her ” back in 2000 describing Clifford’s efforts to locate the ship and its excavation beginning in the mid 80’s. Nevertheless, it looks like a great exhibit.
For those not familiar with the Whydah, she had brief, if somewhat notorious career. Built in 1715, the Whydah was commissioned to carry slaves from Africa to the Americas. On her maiden voyage in 1716, after discharging 312 Africans into the hands of the slave traders in Jamaica, the Whydah sailed toward the Bahamas only to be spotted by the pirate Captain Sam Bellamy and his small flotilla of pirate ships. After a three day chase, Bellamy caught up with the Whydah, and took her as his flagship.
Captain Bellamy sailed north toward New England, reportedly taking as many as 50 ships along the way. Bellamy’s career as a pirate was short lived, however. The Whydah and other ships in his band were caught in a swept up in a violent storm off Cape Cod. Bellamy drowned as did most of the 146 men under his command. Only two escaped from the Whydah while seven more escaped from other ships. Of these nine survivors, seven for captured and tried for piracy in Boston. Six were hanged and the seventh, an Indian, was sold into slavery.
There it might have ended, a footnote in history - the Whydah, never completing her maiden voyage, and Sam Bellamy’s one year career as a pirate. It didn’t work out that way because almost 300 years later, underwater explorer Barry Clifford pieced together clues left in the old records and used them to determine the location of the wreck of the Whydah. In 1985 the expedition succeeded in locating the Whydah’s ship’s bell, positively identifying the wreck as the lost ship.
The Field Museum exhibit is open from February 25 through October 25, 2009 and was organized by organized by National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International. Thanks to Anne Elliot on the Horatians forum for the heads-up about the exhibit.
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Great story about ggg uncle Sam. He was going to Cape Cod to see his girlfriend.
Are you indeed the ggg nephew of Captain Sam?
The most bizarre part of the story was that when Captain Sam took the Whydah, rather than killing the captain and crew, or putting them ashore at some convenient location, he apparently took the Whydah but left the Sultana, the ship that he had used to capture the Whydah. A level of generosity unusual among pirates.